Labour minister accused of favouring Cosatu affiliate

MILDRED OLIPHANT -

THE DA and labour federations have vowed to write to President Jacob Zuma and the International Labour Organisation over Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant’s treatment of chemical workers’ union Ceppwawu.

Last week, acting Labour Court judge Anton Myburgh ruled that labour registrar Johan Crouse be reinstated, finding that Oliphant had been “unreasonable, alternatively irrational and procedurally unfair” in her decision to remove him from his post earlier this year.

DA labour spokesman Ian Ollis and the Federation of the Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) and the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) said the treatment of Crouse – who had been acting to place the ailing Cosatu-affiliated Ceppwawu under administration – smacked of political cronyism.

The Department of Labour will be appealing against the judgment.

Oliphant had written to Crouse shortly after he instituted court action in June, demanding to know why she had not been briefed and that the matter be suspended.

After Crouse failed to do so, she revoked his appointment as registrar and ordered that state resources not be used to fund the court action.

The court matter detailed the concerns about the future of the union, which in addition to its lack of financial accounting since 2010, had seen legal battles within the leadership and failure to hold an AGM.

In his submissions Crouse wrote that he believed “there might be serious mismanagement of its finances under way to the prejudice of members”.

Myburgh found that this, coupled with a letter from Ceppwawu Investments’ attorneys, was cause for concern.

“If this letter is anything to go by, Mr Crouse’s concerns about serious financial mismanagement are well founded.”

Crouse argued that in his 20 years as registrar he had never once been asked to brief the minister on such matters.

He submitted that over the past five years, he had cancelled the registrations of 81 unions without briefing senior department management.

“It is not clear what makes the Ceppwawu matter different from the other cases that have been dealt with,” Crouse said.

While the judgment did not make any findings on political interference, Fedusa general secretary Dennis George said Ceppwawu appeared to be getting preferential treatment due to its links to Cosatu and the ANC.

Both Fedusa and Nactu have previously written to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa regarding the issue but they have not had responses.

George said he hoped for an opportunity to address the issue with the president or the deputy president.

Nactu president Joseph Maqhekeni said the union condemned the Department of Labour’s move to appeal against the judgment and the request for 90 days to prepare the financials.

“That union should have been under administration long, long ago,” he said.

Nactu was now considering approaching the regional offices of the International Labour Organisation to take up the matter, he said.

Ollis said he would write to Zuma calling for Oliphant’s head.

“The minister is merely trying to protect the general secretary of Ceppwawu because he is aligned to the Cosatu and ANC leadership, by preventing the Ceppwawu matter being heard in a court of law,” he said.

Oliphant’s spokesman said the department had submitted an appeal, but would not comment further.

-Bianca Capazorio